BSA Profitable Innovation Program

Great ideas – such as a new product, process or marketing strategy -- are what help a business keep-pace or even set-the-pace in a fast-moving economy. Such innovations can turn any company into a consistent high-performer.

But having a great idea is only the first step in a risky journey of turning the idea into a profitable innovation. Too often businesses introduce the right idea at the wrong time for the business, or worse still completely miss the window to implement the right business innovation at the right time. In either case, the business will suffer financially.

Based on a program developed in Australia and implemented around the world, the Business Sustainability Alliance Profitable Innovation Program will provide SMEs with a powerful methodology to determine the true value of innovative sustainable businesses opportunities and the readiness of the organisation to convert the innovation opportunity into profitable business outcomes.

On behalf of the BSA, Innovate SA is currently seeking expressions of interest from process-orientated and manufacturing companies operating in South Australia, to participate in the next round of the BSA Profitable Innovation Program.

The next workshop round is on Friday 30th March 2012. To register your interest click here and complete the EOI Survey before 10am on 8th March 2012 providing details of your company and a contact person.

The survey should take less than 3 minutes to complete and is designed to ensure that companies selected are able to maximise the benefits from their participation in the program. Registration of interest is no guarantee of the company being selected to participate in the program. The selection of the companies by Innovate SA for each round is final. Organisations will be notified of selection decision by 15th March 2012.

The $1,200 cost per company of the program is fully covered by Innovate SA for successful companies selected to participate.

About the program: 

The program is focused on helping companies identify a suite of potential business innovation opportunities and link them to a financial performance methodology to determine whether the business should pursue the opportunities (by understanding their impacts on the business), and whether the business can successfully instigate the opportunity and manage the project to the point where it is delivering the intended profitable benefits
Each workshop round will only involve of up to ten companies.

The program comprises of:

1-2-1 pre-workshop engagement to help the participants prepare for the workshop by gathering some of the company’s potential sustainability-related business opportunity ideas

• A 4-hour group workshop session that will introduce the methodology of:
  - connecting innovation to sustainable business performance
  - assessing your innovative business opportunities against customer expectations and competitor performance
  - mapping your material and resource inputs to value and non-value outputs
  - resource efficiency assessments and identifying areas of high value impact
  - business performance review based on the proven Fiscal Focus® assessment mechanism
  - sensitivity analysis of  which innovation changes will have the greatest impact on business performance
  - “Should We / Can We” dynamic modelling decision support framework
  - The discipline of “J-Curve Management” for managing innovative strategic investment 
• A series of homework exercises to help underpin the knowledge gained from the workshop and  to commence applying some of the methodologies in to your business
• 1-2-1 mentoring session with the program facilitators at Innovate SA to expand and provide guidance resulting from the homework exercises

Program Facilitators

Nick Setchell B.Economics (University of Adelaide), Fellow AICD CEO & President, Practice Strategies

Nick Setchell is CEO of the Practice Strategies Group, an international business improvement consulting firm that defined and developed “Fiscal Focus®”. Nick has analysed more than 1,000 businesses and worked with hundreds of CEOs and executives to help them better understand their operations and to make better business decisions. Nick has presented over 400 workshops to CEOs and executives in the USA, Australia, UK, Canada and New Zealand. He also has run numerous coaching workshops for commercial bankers in Australia and the US.

Nick Palousis BEng (Hons 1). B. Math. & Comp. Sc Managing Director, 2XE

Nick Palousis has spent a decade of his career working with businesses, governments and research institutions to help them to both understand the business case for sustainability, and implement strategies to achieve competitive advantage in a carbon and resource-constrained environment. He has worked with clients in a variety of industries, including Agribusiness, Automotive, Consumer Goods, Finance, Food & Beverage, Infrastructure, Insurance, Investment, Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, Property, State Government and Urban Development sectors. He has worked on engagements across Australia, Singapore, China, Thailand, Japan, US, Germany and the UK.